Garage door



H. N, MA ZEN GARAGE noon Filed Aug. 21, 1922 May 26, 1925.

2 Sheet l Many 26, 1925. 1,539,014

H. N. MATZEN GARAGE DOOR Filed Aug. 21. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2- Patented May 26.

UNITED STATES w ll. HATZEILOI'FL EVBLAND, OHIO.

cannon noon.

. Application filed August 2 1, Serial No. 588,178.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN N. MATZEN,

.a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland in the county of- Cuyahoga and I State of (lhio, have invented a certain new' and useful Improvement in Garage Doors,

of which the following is a full, clear, and

exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to doors, and more particularly to doors such as are employed in garages or other out-buildings. The general purpose and object of the invention is to rovide a constructionand arrangement of cor and its cooperating parts which will enable the door to be conveniently opened and closed, with a minimum of effort on the part of the operator; which will, when open,

serve as an extension of the roof as a protection against rain, etc; also to provide a door of this character with a counterweight, connected thereto in-such manner that the I counterweight may be conveniently adjusted not only to. vary its lifting or counter-balancing efi'ort upon the door, but to,

enable the application of such weight to be varied to accommodate the counterweight and supporting arm to varying installations. 'Further and more limited ob ects of the invention will appear hereinafter and will be realized through the combinations of elements embodied in the claims hereto annexed. In the drawings forming part of this application, Fi 1 represents a vertical sectional view 0 the front portion of a garage or similar building having my invention applied thereto, the door being shown in its closed position; Fig. 2 a similar view showing the upper portion of such garage or outbuilding and a portion of the door, the latter being in its open position; Fig. 3 a horizontal sectional view corresponding substantially to the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; and Fig, 4 is a sectional detail corresponding to the line 4-4 of Fig.1. 1

' Describing the various parts by reference characters, 1 denotes the front bottom sill, 2 one of the bottom side sills and 3 one of the to other building. For the pur ose of convenience of description, the b ding will be frame members of the garage or referred tohereinafter as a garage. The 111 1 may be of concrete or other suitable material and has its upper face beveled, as

shown at 1, to form a seat for the lower ends of the vertical frame members of the PATENT] omczlf door; it is also provided with a-socket' 1 1 for the lower end of a locking bolt to be carried by the doorl On each side of the door opening, the

garage is provided with the frame members I 4 to which the siding 5 may be nailed.- Extending transversely across the top of the I door opening is a lintel 6, having its inner frame member and terminating with a beveled upper end 8 at a point vertically spaced from and below the lintel 6.

9 denotes a pair of uprights,there being a pair on each side of'the garage doorway opening, the members of each pair being supported by their respective bottom sill 2 a and cross plece 3. Each pair of uprights 9 forms a support for a bracket 10, said bracket having an upwardly projecting bearing portion 11 provided with a central opening for the reception of a bolt 12, which bolt supports the correspondin side of the garage, door in a manner to hereinafter;

The door comprises two frame members 13,'.one or more intermediate frame members 14 and weatherboarding or other suitable siding or covering material 15. Each of the frame members 13 has at its upper portion a jamb section 16, which extends substantially eled, as indicated at 16, so that, when the door is closed, it contacts with the upper end of the 'amb section 8 and extends and completes t e same. Extending across the top of the door isa transverse member 17 having its outer face beveled, as indicated at be explained to itsupper end and has its lower end bev 17, wherebyit contacts with the correspondingly beveled face 6 of the lintel 6 when the door is closed, thus forming a weatherproof joint therewith. The sur faces 6 and 17 are preferably beveled on the are of a circle described fromthe center of the bearing portion 11, about which the door swings as a pivot.

For the purpose of enabling the door to swing about this pivot, each side frame member 13 has attached thereto a sup-porting bracket of generally triangular form, the foot of the bracket (indicated at 18) being firmly secured to its appropriate frame member 13 and the apex of the bracket be ing provided with a circular bearing portion 18 havin' a 12, there being a spacing sleeve 18 interposed between each bearing portion 11 and the cooperating bearing portion 18". The base 18 of each bracket is also provided with a pluralityof inwardly extending lugs or projections 18 providing notches 18 therebetween for the reception of a tooth 19 car ried by the outer end of a weight-supporting arm 19. The projections 18 are preferably arranged on a short are of a circle described from the center of the bolt 12, and an aperture 18 is provided in radial alignment with each notch for the recep tion of a bolt- 20, by means of which the outer end of each arm 19 may be adjusted with its tooth-19 in theproper notch to suit a particular installation, being secured in such position by means of the bolt 20 and the appropriate aperture 18; I The arm 19 is provided with acentral bearing portion 19 adapted to engage the corresponding bearing portion 18 of. the door supporting bracket, and is extended beyond such bearing 19 to provide an inner weight-supporting arm 19having longitudinally arranged recesses 19 enabling the weight21 to be adjustably secured thereto by means of the bolt 22, the weights being slidable along the arm in a manner ordinary with the use of counterweights.

Ordinarily, each side of the door will be provided with abracket 18, counterweight arms 19, 19, and a counterweight 21, as

this arrangement enables the counterweighting effort to. be balanced and also removes the counterweights from the door opening, leaving the latter clear. 1

The'lower ends of the door frame members 13 and 14 will be beveled, as indicated at 13 on the former frame members, to cooperate with the beveled surface 1 of the cross strip 7; and, to lock the door in its closed\position, I preferably employ a bolt 23 which is slidably mounted .in suitable guides 24 on the door, so that the lower end of the bolt can enter the aperture 1 provided therefor in the sill 1. The bolt may be locked in place by means of an eye 23 central aperture for the bolt carried thereby and adapted to overlap an eye 24 on the upper guide, these eyes servmg to receive jointly the shackle of a padlock 25. a By the construction described,I have provided a garage or "similar building with a door whichmay be very easily opened by a lifting movement; in fact, the weights 21 ing against the felt or similar resilient stop 7 and assuming the inclined sheddin POSI- tion indicated in Fi '2. When in t is po-" sition, it will be evldent that-the operator 1wlilll be protected from rain, snow or the It will be noted further that the relation of the counterweight supporting arms to the doors may be varied in accordance with articular installations, the carrying brac ets and counterweight parts thus being capable of independent manufacture and application to varying doors and installations thereof.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

v 1. The combination with a building having a doorway and a lintel above such doorway, said lintel having a strip of yieldable material along the lower edge thereof and a beveled seat along the inner edge thereof, and a door pivotally supported within said doorway, said door having a transverse member along its upper edge provided with a beveled seat adapted to engage the beveled seat of said lintel, said door being adapted to engage said yieldable material in full openexl and full closed positions.

The combination, with a building having a doorway provided on each side thereof with a sillhaving a door'jamb section extending upwardly from the bottom thereof and terminating short of the top of such doorway and having its upper end beveled, of a lintel above such doorway and provided with a beveled inner edge, a door, means for ivotally supporting said door on a substantially horizontal axis and in position to open and close said doorway, the said. door having frame members each provided with a door jamb section extending downwardly from the to thereof and each having its lower end veled and adapted to contact with the upper end of the cooperating jamb section on the doorway frame members, respectively, and said door having a transverse member along its upper edge provided with a beveled seat adapted to engage with the beveled seat of sa d hntel.

3. The combination, with a buildm having a doorway and provided on eac slde of such doorway with a bracket having a hub, of a door for such doorway having on oent said door being adjustably connected to' each side thereof an inwardly projecting the door bracket, and a counterweight adbraeket having a. central bearing portion justably connected with the opposite end of 10 pivotally connected to said hub, a eountere h of sold arms.

5 i ht upporting arm pivotally connected In testimony whereof, I hereunto aflixmy to the pivotal axis of each of the doorslgnatulebrackets, the end of each of said arms adja I HERMAN N. MATZEN. 

